Category Archives: Architecture
The world today is realizing just how useful a building’s façade can be to generate some sweet green energy. One of the world’s most efficient solar façade will spring up in Korea, the Federation of Korean Industries Tower in Seoul. Architect Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture unveiled the design for this green façade which will take energy generating efficiency to a whole new level. The tower standing 800 feet tall will boast a façade using building-integrated photovoltaics. The PVs are designed to face skywards while the glazing is angled to face the ground. Owing to this, the façade glass will reflect a larger amount of the sun’s rays, hence helping reduce cooling costs by astounding figures too.
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Why build solar power stations down here on earth, when we could get a little closer to the sun, on the moon probably, and generate a lot more energy! Bryna Anderson, graduate from Columbia University came up with this design for the 2010 Moon Capital International Design Challenge. The system simply gathers the energy using photovoltaic panels placed on the moon which is then beamed back to earth using microwaves. However unlike the usual photovoltaic arrays we see these days, flat and laid out, this one’s shaped up with a spine like structure. The spiny structure houses the plant, the cells, and place for the workers too. Of course it isn’t going to be a walk through a park or a piece of cake to build this one. A structure like this would need the help of robotic intervention.
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We’ve seen some pretty green hotels to live in before, like the Marriott International sites at Atlanta. To add to the list of green places to layback and rest your spine is the shining new Planet Traveler hostel. Located in Toronto, Canada, this one will fling its doors open to guests by next month. Tom Rand, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and author, claims that this really is the greenest hotel in Northern America! For him, the hotel surpasses the Platinum LEED certification too! Using on-sight solar thermal and solar panels, high-efficiency lighting and drain-water heat recapture, this one keeps its act clean.
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Now maybe the ancients couldn’t complete the Tower of Babel in the Old Testament, a stairway to heaven. In the future though, towers that do a lot more than just lead you to heaven could sprout up around the globe, green energy generating towers! Designed by British architects David Arnold and Alexa Ratzlaff, The Wind Tower, a colossal structure from the looks of it, will help generate enough energy to power up 2,000 homes. Composed of steel and concrete, this aerodynamically shaped tower will catch the wind currents to generate electricity. The center of the tower integrates a core with the main vertical circulation and storage areas while the spiral around it houses commercial, residential, institutional, and recreational facilities. The wind turbines on this one will measure around 45 meters.
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Trees love the sun just as much as we do. They bask in the glory of the sun’s energy to live. Well, here’s a tree that soaks in the sun to produce electricity! The symbol of London’s commitment to embracing green energy, the Forest City tree logo is integrated with twenty seven solar-capturing leaves. This metal tree has been set up at 696 Wellington Rd. S. The tallest solar tree in the world, this metal structure is a piece of art and an electricity generator combined. This tree will help draw visitors to the Tourism London center. Costing $160,000, the 27-leafed tree and adjacent three larger solar panels will produce 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy a year and help offset 10 tons of Co2 emissions annually.
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Imagine big hotshots deciding your future in a building that is ecologically sustainable. That dream can soon become reality as the Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) made what is touted to be the first carbon neutral conference center open for use. The center has a vertically stacked program as opposed to a horizontal one as the architects at KRJDA wanted a better energy efficient envelope. The building comes with a 100-year design life too!
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Reducing your carbon footprint is not limited to merely eliminating carbon dioxide, but also means making it more robust and sustainable. How you ask? Well the Eyeful Home Company of Tostem Housing Institute Co Ltd in Japan has cracked that mystic code with a “Super-sustainable Model House Next+ Nagaiki Style” house that not just cuts down on CO2 emissions but absorbs it too! Completely equipped with green and health-related devices, this is the third-level of the concept home tradition that Tostem Housing began creating in 2008 and plans to commercialize this project by 2011.
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Just when you though that the soccer world cup was history, its back making waves again. As Qatar gets ready to bring the frenzy to home turf in 2022, they have thought far off to ensure green and architecturally advanced designs for the world to savor. The energy efficient world-class football stadium called the Lusail Iconic Stadium is being developed with the help of Foster and Partners. Keeping in mind the extremely arid condition of the Middle East, the stadium will powered using solar energy. However the stadium with a seating capacity of 86,000 will be cool and will generate additional power from the parking lot canopies.
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The New York skyline might just have a diamond in the sky if things go as planned. Mexican architect Luis Durazo came up with the Diamond Tower, a building inspired by a girl’s best friend, diamonds, and 300 meters high and boasting some pretty green features. The building’s exoskeleton acts as a steel lattice and allows in daylight. It also packs wind turbines on the top levels while solar panels cover the building’s façade. Inside, the Diamond Tower will house a museum, art galleries and a lot more recreational areas. Somewhat reminding us of the chemical structure of diamonds, this tower will surely turn into a recognized landmark in the city of New York.
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Eco-friendly homes are just the thing we need in to save our ever-degrading environment today. Keeping away carbon-emissions has been on everyone’s mind these days. It’s no wonder that every time we see an eco-friendly home, we just can’t stop smiling; especially the one’s as customizable as these! Known as the Be Coc Mobile Home, these ‘homes’ are sort of caravans, powered by solar energy. Complete with a bathroom, kitchen, lounge area, this one works on clean-energy, giving you a luxurious stay, keeping up with the trends and doing the best it can to keep the environment happy.
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